PESHAWAR: Pakistan Mazdoor Kisan Tehreek has rejected increase in power tariff and the prices of petroleum products, saying inflation will further deepen the current economic crisis being faced by the poor farmers and industrial workers.

Addressing a news conference at Peshawar Press Club on Monday, Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Tehreek provincial coordinator Fayyaz Khan said that inflation had badly affected landless farmers and industrial workers but the government was unable to provide any relief to them.

Flanked by a group of farmers and members of the Tehreek, he said that poor had no other option but to raise their voice by holding protests and setting up hunger strike camps across the country.

Fayyaz Khan said that government should immediately refuse to accept all capitalist, feudal and imperialist policies and the conditions of International Monetary Fund, otherwise the issues would worsen with passing of time and the rulers would be unable to control the situation.

He said that instead of imposing taxes on poor, the government should impose an agricultural tax on landlords and the people owning more than 150 acres of land. He added that the government should also impose tax on real estate and include farmers and labourers in decision-making so that the country could be steered out of the crises and to put on the path of development.

Fayyaz Khan said that owing to flawed policies of the government, people were stuck in the quagmire of poverty, unemployment and inflation. He said that farmers had been forced to abandon farming as a result of IMF’s conditions. He said that energy crisis in the country was also result of the IMF conditions.

He said that the skyrocketing prices of food and other commodities had clearly pushed the working class of the country to the brink of destruction, resulting in an exodus of the rural population to cities.

He demanded of the government to take on board farmers and labourers about the decision-making process and policies to steer the country out of the economic crisis at the earliest.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2023